(NEW TR LINK) Mickey MMMouse,McDonald Duck& Memo: 12 Days & 13.1 Miles. Nov 2013 TR

[Tinker326]

Posted Tuesday today! We're in a dead heat!!

Not for long....updating now! But only the first 2 hours of Wednesday! Plenty of time to pull ahead!

 

[Tinker326]

The great morning dawned on the African Plains outside our humble abode. I would like to say it was the siren call of a giraffe or zebra that roused me from my slumber but it was just a voice saying... "Mama, I gotta go potty". Sigh. Yes, that's how most mornings happen in our house. And usually way too early...

Also common in the household is the ability of a certain someone (I won't name names but I married him) to sleep right through all things 'middle of the night kid related'. Amazing talent.

But as established- I'm a light sleeper & so up I got with the Shrimp to attend to potty duties. We decided to leave our room located in Africa and trek back to the US (remember the US is the lobby approx. 4,000 miles from our room) to get my diet pop fix. An addicts (I mean girl) gotta do what an addict (girl) has to do.

Five hours later we arrived back at the room!

I woke everyone up to get ready. There's a great big beautiful DIS to do. Sleep later! Our plan for today... EPCOT!!! And First up... Some Princesses for our Princesses at a Princess breakfast! Although one princess who is a tomboy stated something along the effects of 'this is going to be so lame'.

3 girls, one dad, one mom & one Grandma got dressed & out we went..to very cold weather!! What the heck... I thought we were in Florida. Why is it like 30 degrees? Yup. We brought cold weather with us.

The hubby, being all manly and such... declared "I am Man. I no need warmth. I am Man and I am in Florida. Therefore I will not wear or bring anything with long sleeves!" This particular manly man spent most of the day very, very cold. That man's wife just laughed. Because she's a considerate wife like that when he says stupid stuff!

Allright, enough talking. PICTURES. So into our van with the light on (I promise this is almost over!!) and on to EPCOT we went! We got primo, front row parking spot because we were there an hour plus before official opening.

So much like the scene out of National Lampoons Vacation from an empty parking lot to the theme park.......In we go.. running...Griswald style to Wally World (cue Chariots of Fire music too please)....



Aww man, look at my awesome hoody. It's totally Figment and I totally love it! Got it in 2008 and I get loads of compliments everytime I wear it. I love that little purple dude even if his ride verges on the edge of suckage.

Also note the stroller. It makes its first and last appearance here as Charlie girl soon decides "I hate Stroller" and refused to sit in it. I'm kinda sad because we went through a lot to purchase that stroller in a mad ,wild, adventure through Beijing- but that's a story on another blog......and you'll have to go read that there..as it in no way relates to Epcot!

Once in line.. we waited... and waited. And provided our name, birthdates, height, political affiliation and how much money exactly were we going to spend once in EPCOT... man, it's like getting super security clearance to enter EPCOT early to meet the mighty Princesses..... will we pass muster?



Aww shoot. Aren't my kids cute?

To pass time, I show the cold hubby some pictures. Not sure of what.. but of something.....



Please notice the crossed arms as he tries to stay warm.

Finally they let us in around 7:55. Oh, the big ball. Epcot- we love you!



And more Clark Griswald family style running through parks! Let's go...we got princesses to see...



We arrive. To another line! Woo!!!



But finally we were here: Princess Nirvana



I like to call this breakfast place.. "The Place I can neither say or spell but is located in Norway and Princesses are there". That's it's real name if you ever ask me!

So here we are, in that place....



And on to Belle. Who is my all time favorite Princess.



We like to call this the Charlie "I'm still learning how to smile on cue" smile. It's like a 'huh, what's happening to me right now' thing.

Come on Family- get in. Mostly because this breakfast costs more than most people's gross annual income & I want my 2 pictures from 6 people worth. Oh, and I love Belle. That too.



And finally seated at our round table (just like Prince Arthur).



Sarah, I think I may have mentioned, has some Autistic qualities that come out in certain situations and this kicks her into overdrive on being..um... a wee bit difficult.... and so we entered that situation.. and she immediately declared that nothing of the $30 buffet interested her (even though she loves fruit, eggs, breakfast meats & potatoes!)... and could the waiter please make her Mickey waffles. I think she was also taking out her irritation at being at a Princess breakfast (remember, she thinks Princesses are lame!)

Our waiter, being awesome.. accommodated princess spoil sport...



And as one last jab to us.. she had to photobomb my cute picture of my little Princess..with a waffle.



What Sarah didn't realize is the AWESOMENESS that this breakfast was. Yes, it cost my kids first year of college tuition but dang those lingonberry muffins were SO good. It was SO worth it.



And these cheesy potato things. Um... Disney Heaven. I had about 9 pounds of them.



Yhea, this breakfast was GOOD. Like super GOOD. Like amazing.

Okay. Now I"m hungry. On to Princesses. They came rather fast & furious and it was rather rushed. But that's ok... It suited our purposes of getting back to Lingonberries and Cheesy Potatoes faster...



I thought it was cute that each princess tried to find themselves on Charlie's shirt (yes, yes.. I realize now that you probably all noticed it's the SAME SHIRT SHE WORE ALL DAY YESTERDAY. Don't judge. I didn't expect the cold weather! She didn't smell too bad!)







Looking at these, I'm surprised that Sarah decided to cooperate and be in the 'lame Princess pictures'

Even more surprising was she participated in the Princess parade.





She did sit down afterwards and tell me "I am never doing that again in my life- that was the most embarrassing moment of my life"

Oh poor child, how I feel for the rest of your life if that is the most embarrassing moment of your life. Wait till you mother shows up at your High School Prom and busts -a- move. Then you'll know embarrassing....

With that (and a few more muffins and potatoes shoved in our mouths) we signed the deed to our house over to Disney to pay and left the restaurant.

Happy. Full & ready to begin a day at Epcot!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH! (Sorry the girls made me watch a Charlie Brown movie yesterday) the light! The anticipation of a flat tire is killing me....

I believe our DHs may be related! When our first was born, he swore up and down that he'd help out during the night, but I was on to his con game the second night we were home and she was crying at 2 am and he didn't even budge.

I love the griswald reference!! More then once on our trip rich or I said "the moose out front should've told you"

We did lunch at that place with the princesses in Epcot once. It was really good! I'd love to try breakfast there sometime. I'd love it even more if next time we went Elsa and Anna were there and I didn't have to stand in a line to see them!

I'm glad everybody liked it--even if it was the most embarrassing thing of DDs life!

 

[skier_pete]

Ah ha! You are still not ahead of me, because OUR day did not start until 9 AM!

That was one cold day! I don't think it broke 60 and it was breezy too. I broke down and bought a sweatshirt (I had left mine at the gate in Buffalo), but I did stick it out with shorts!

And I keep saying this. Thank GOD they finally fixed Aurora's dress. The old version was so --- cartoony.

Looks like everyone was having fun, though! Even Princess LAME-O!

 

[JulieODC]

Looks like a fun and delicious breakfast!! That's awesome that they made your DD mickey waffles....can't fault a girl for knowing exactly what she wants

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

The Breakfast Place!!! I thought I was the only one that had no clue how to say it.

Ah, the magic of Disney, it makes even a princess-hater smile, get up, and participate. Savannah got up and did the parade at Ohana, which SHOCKED me, she's so shy normally. She still cringes when I show her the photos and says she doesn't know what came over her.

Luckily, at 13, Princesses are apparently cool...in a hipster kinda way, so now we get to eat in the Castle and paint our nails in princess colors!

 

[Tinker326]

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH! (Sorry the girls made me watch a Charlie Brown movie yesterday) the light! The anticipation of a flat tire is killing me....

I believe our DHs may be related! When our first was born, he swore up and down that he'd help out during the night, but I was on to his con game the second night we were home and she was crying at 2 am and he didn't even budge.

I love the griswald reference!! More then once on our trip rich or I said "the moose out front should've told you"

We did lunch at that place with the princesses in Epcot once. It was really good! I'd love to try breakfast there sometime. I'd love it even more if next time we went Elsa and Anna were there and I didn't have to stand in a line to see them!

I'm glad everybody liked it--even if it was the most embarrassing thing of DDs life!

I agree- they should totally put Elsa and Anna there. They could probably make the whole breakfast revolve around Frozen and it would be wildly popular. Like have Kristoff & Olaf.... how cool would that be. I'll tell you- it would be so cool, that no one could ever get in.. much like Be Our Guest & Cindy's Royal Table!

We love Lampoon movies. Our pug dog (who is admitedly NOT the brightest animal on this earth) is named after Cousin Eddie. We throw refrences to him all the time- like when squirrels are in our backyard we say "Where's Eddie, I thought he ate these things?"

Men do have the amazing ability to 'sleep through it'. Or fake sleep through it better than we do!

Ah ha! You are still not ahead of me, because OUR day did not start until 9 AM!

That was one cold day! I don't think it broke 60 and it was breezy too. I broke down and bought a sweatshirt (I had left mine at the gate in Buffalo), but I did stick it out with shorts!

And I keep saying this. Thank GOD they finally fixed Aurora's dress. The old version was so --- cartoony.

Looks like everyone was having fun, though! Even Princess LAME-O!

Disney really needs to capitlize on the snake loving, non-dress wearing Princess idea. Then she might go for it!

I forgot Kurt had shorts on too till I looked at the pictures after I hit publish. He was in Florida and he was NOT going to wear pants or long sleeves, darn it!!

And technically, I AM ahead of you. As I think the time is now 9:30am as we leave breakfast.

You didn't like the spiky, mile high shoulders on Aurora's old dress? She used them as weapons against unruley children.

Looks like a fun and delicious breakfast!! That's awesome that they made your DD mickey waffles....can't fault a girl for knowing exactly what she wants

Oh that she knows... and is very, very vocal about it- always! The funny thing is the little stink didn't even eat more than 1 of those waffles after making the fuss about it.

The Breakfast Place!!! I thought I was the only one that had no clue how to say it.

Ah, the magic of Disney, it makes even a princess-hater smile, get up, and participate. Savannah got up and did the parade at Ohana, which SHOCKED me, she's so shy normally. She still cringes when I show her the photos and says she doesn't know what came over her.

Luckily, at 13, Princesses are apparently cool...in a hipster kinda way, so now we get to eat in the Castle and paint our nails in princess colors!

My almost 12 year old has never been ashamed to be a princess lover. Her goal in life is to BE a princess at WDW. I fully support this goal in hopes of scoring free passes in my golden age. If that doesn't pan out, my back up plan is to work the popcorn cart in Frontierland.

Yhea, man- that resturant needs a name change. Everytime I talked about it I had to say 'you know that resturant in Norway with Princesses... Akesouraus" (distant relation to the dinosaurs the way I pronounce it).

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Akesouraus" (distant relation to the dinosaurs the way I pronounce it).

 

[skier_pete]

Yhea, man- that resturant needs a name change. Everytime I talked about it I had to say 'you know that resturant in Norway with Princesses... Akesouraus" (distant relation to the dinosaurs the way I pronounce it).

I thought it was just AWK-ER-SHOOSH? That isn't right?

 

[Tinker326]

I thought it was just AWK-ER-SHOOSH? That isn't right?

I prefer prehistoric translations by adding in the 'aus' to the end of it. The Norway Viking cavemen would approve I think...........

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I thought it was just AWK-ER-SHOOSH? That isn't right?

I always thought it was something like:

ACK-ER-SHUS

Yep, Norway breakfast place works for me.

 

[Tinker326]

I need a happy place right now considering we are being hit with the 9,456 Blizzard of the season, I just drove in it to work & apparently all cities ran out of budget money for overtime for plows & salt.... so it was a fun TWO HOUR COMMUTE of 'make your own lane' and 'see if you can spot a snowplow'. (answer- no you can't).

OMG- WHEN IS WINTER OVER ALREADY?!?! The good news is in exactly 45 days (not that I"m counting or anything) I will be IN ARIZONA. Have I mentioned I love that my mom is a snowbird and moves there in winter.

So I'm shunning the big man, taking 1/2 hour to decompress and writing a 'happy place' report!

So we just left that "Breakfast I can't Pronounce" happy, full & ready to hit some rides.

First up is.......



NEMO! Or, as known in our house as "MEMO".

Background on little Memo- there was this hand me down shirt Charlie got that had Nemo on it- she fell in love with this shirt and it got to the point where she would not want to wear anything else but this shirt. I had to literally hide the dang shirt and declare it 'missing' so I didn't have to have the daily battle of wearing MEMO shirt. So anyways- the girl loved Memo..and leading up to vacation all she talked about was 'riding the Memo ride'. So here we were, ready to fulfill the little girls dream.....



No pictures in the cute clamshell at the beginning- I attempted and got yelled at. So um, whatever....

And I refuse to be one of those people that regardless of the multiple warnings issued about no flash photography feel it's their inherent right to ruin everyone else's 'dark ride' experience with their flash.

So no pictures.

But Char loved it! And we rode it several more times that trip.

Out into the Living Seas we headed over to......



I don't particularly care for this show. When it first came out it was way cool. But I feel now, it's old.......... personal feeling only. Becca loves it & Charlie enjoyed it. Sarah, however, has MASS ANXIETY over this as well. She fears, with all her heart, of being 'picked' randomly by Crush. So much that she hides behind me during the show. (Part of that high functioning specturm level thing- she has pretty extreme social anxiety in certain conditions...and this particular show TRIGGERS it everytime). We avoid Monsters Laugh Floor for this exact reason. Least with Crush it's more of a 'raise your hand and be called on thing'.

Anyways.. waiting for the next show we played in the area.....





Soon we were done with that and into my favorite part of Living Seas- The Shark area. We are a tad bit obsessed with sharks in our house. Sarah studies them and knows all their traits..one of her favorite possesions is a set of Shark Teeth she has... and I have a massive fear of them and spend unecessary amounts of time also studying them. So it makes sense, of course, we are going to jump into Shark's Mouths here with glee...



As a side note- something I learned this trip as our first trip with 3 kids.. it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to get all three kids in this picture.

I actually love this picture.. I keep saying I should make it my profile pic on Facebook...especially as we near our Cruise depature where said fear of Sharks come back into play more...........



I bet hubby is warm in that Shark Belly. First time all day!

We spent lots of timing playing here.. Like I said- Sarah LOVES this area. Since she endured 'lame-o' princesses, I felt we needed to indulge her love of Science here for awhile........



(I know it's dark.. I didn't do ANY photo editing of my pictures.. I just don't have time right now.. sorry!)





Sarah spent lots of time on the trivia boards as well...



Oh my.. .human sightings... where?



Oh, here.... one bored girl & one bored dad making their own fun waiting for Sarah...



We finally dragged Sarah out & through the gift shop we went where what does Charlie's roaming eye spot.. oh, a new Nemo shirt. Sigh. She wanted. I told her 'we'll wait and come back and get in a few days if you still want it'. She heard "blah, blah, blah, we can get it" And subsequently spent the next 3 days asking for her Memo shirt. In case I forget to mention it.. we did end up buying it for her the next time we came to Epcot. And It's HIDDEN till summer (it's short sleeve) so I don't have to do the 'MEMO SHIRT FIGHT" every morning.

Out and over to one of my all time favoritest ride in all of Disney......



We had our first Magic Band Fast Pass Plus of the day here. And Charlie LOVED this show......



You may notice as well Charlie's pink pin lanyard. The girl LOVES this lanyard. She loved pins & pin trading. To this day, that lanyard is worn on a near daily basis around the house. She hands it up every night on my kitchen cabinet door and tells me 'don't touch that, okay mama?' (She's on to me...she knows my habits of hiding stuff she becomes obsessed with like Memo shirts & every random ziploc baggie she can get her hands on) So that's an offbeat mention of the pink lanyard that you will see often.

Anyways, after Soarin' we headed to see my favorite little Purple dude. Figment.



Look- Grandma finally made it into the picture! I bet you all thought my mom coming along was fiction at this point. Or, as mentioned in my intro, that she got sold VERY early to the pirates.... nope she didn't.. here she is!!!

Daddy having fun with his girls...



Course I told him if he threw his back out (which he's prone to do) lifting three girls I was NOT pushing him around in a wheelchair the rest of the trip! (remember, I am a considerate wife like that!)

I know this ride stinks. But I still love Figment. I do. The purple guy rocks!



Let's ride!! Gram & two of her girls...



IMAGINATION..... One little spark.. of inspiration....



Ride was over & into the gift shop we went... where I broke my steady rule of NO TRYING ON HATS (along with my fear of sharks, I have a huge fear of Lice. You totally understand if you are the mother of three girls with long hair! Just sayin'). I made mom dig from the very back middle to lesson our chance of trying on a hat that had recently been tried on by a person with possible lice.

It was a lot of work for a photo op. See the risks I take and the love I have for the purple dude?



I do love that picture. I'm going to do something with it for mother's day for my mom. Pinterest will tell me what that thing is....

So now we came upon our next set of FP plus time.. Test Track.

I knew my kids & my hubby would love the new one... designing their own car. And I was right- they did! We had a blast! (Gram chose to sit this out & this is one of the FEW 'thrill' rides I can get Becca on).

Sarah's car:



Sarah was with Daddy and I notice strong 'Daddy' influences on her car (like it's a cop car..and he's a cop). But she was happy because it was not pink or purple.... because pink and purple are lame too.

Becca was with me & Charlie..



Yup, totally purple. With flowers on it. Because that's how that princess rolls!

I don't remember who won (I think Sarah & Daddy's car beat us out)..but we sure had fun!



Super glad that random dude joined our family picture as well.

And now, I will leave you and go back to doing what I get paid to do (which is not, suprisingly, write Disney Trip Reports) The good news is noone else has yet to show up yet...

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Another wonderful update!!! Still waiting on the "low tire" light, but I'll just have to suck it up for now. So, you hate sharks enough to write about them on my report and your own, but yet there you are in Bruce's mouth. Nice.

It's snowing here as well and we are expecting 6 - 10 inches today. Ugh. I've had enough!!! But, like you, I'll be outta here in 44 days to Orlando!! Whoo Hoo!!! I really hope the Governor shuts down State Government today. Alas, here I sit watching the snow out my window at my cubicle just wishing I was home.

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[skier_pete]

ARGH - I would be mad that you continue to stay ahead of me! Except that I have updated MY TR, and I am now through about 1 PM on that same day - which I'm guessing puts me around the same point as you since you haven't stopped for lunch yet...

Actually MEMO was an early obsession in our house too - it was the first movie that DD ever started watching non-stop (and it was even called MEMO as well), but DD is definitely cut from a similar cloth to Sarah. (except Princesses - while she doesn't want to dress up as one or BE one - she's a pretty big supporter of the Disney Princesses.) DD can actually name most types of sharks from their profile! We discovered this at the Boston Aquarium last summer. (DD: "That's a blacked tip thresher shark", ME: "How can you tell", DD "The fins") We always spend a considerable time in The Seas and doing the Shark Trivia, though you'd think by now she'd know all the answers to the questions!

(Actually in slightly unrelated news - I was hoping maybe once we get back from our trip we could arrange another Skype chat. I know DD would like to show off her kitten.)

All with you on Figment - Love the Character - the ride is pretty bad, and the pavillion has become atrocious. What ever happened to that rumored closing this year!

DD also loved the new TT - I think it might've been the only ride we rode three times on the trip.

 

[Tinker326]

Another wonderful update!!! Still waiting on the "low tire" light, but I'll just have to suck it up for now. So, you hate sharks enough to write about them on my report and your own, but yet there you are in Bruce's mouth. Nice.

It's snowing here as well and we are expecting 6 - 10 inches today. Ugh. I've had enough!!! But, like you, I'll be outta here in 44 days to Orlando!! Whoo Hoo!!! I really hope the Governor shuts down State Government today. Alas, here I sit watching the snow out my window at my cubicle just wishing I was home.

Now Ann, I am just trying to look out for your safety. I would have hated for your great travel deal to turn into the trip where you got eaten by a shark. Although that scenerio would make for a compelling trip report.

Great pics!

Thanks!

ARGH - I would be mad that you continue to stay ahead of me! Except that I have updated MY TR, and I am now through about 1 PM on that same day - which I'm guessing puts me around the same point as you since you haven't stopped for lunch yet...

Actually MEMO was an early obsession in our house too - it was the first movie that DD ever started watching non-stop (and it was even called MEMO as well), but DD is definitely cut from a similar cloth to Sarah. (except Princesses - while she doesn't want to dress up as one or BE one - she's a pretty big supporter of the Disney Princesses.) DD can actually name most types of sharks from their profile! We discovered this at the Boston Aquarium last summer. (DD: "That's a blacked tip thresher shark", ME: "How can you tell", DD "The fins") We always spend a considerable time in The Seas and doing the Shark Trivia, though you'd think by now she'd know all the answers to the questions!

(Actually in slightly unrelated news - I was hoping maybe once we get back from our trip we could arrange another Skype chat. I know DD would like to show off her kitten.)

All with you on Figment - Love the Character - the ride is pretty bad, and the pavillion has become atrocious. What ever happened to that rumored closing this year!

DD also loved the new TT - I think it might've been the only ride we rode three times on the trip.

Darn it, I totally want to be ahead!!! Yhea, we probably are not at 1pm yet. Still probably closer to 12. Shoot!

Funny story- guess who wants a snake birthday party? Yhea, Sarah! That is clearly why they got along so well in Disney!

For sure let's skype again. I forgot you got that kitty... she's probably getting big now! We got a new dog too! Yippee little Chichuaua. Drives me nuts. But the kids love her........... we are officially a zoo.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

We've got the snow too. Glad you got a few minutes of "happy place" time!

Looks like you're having fun so far! You are very brave to put those hats on. After working with kids my whole life, it's hard for me to not scream LICE! when the girls want to try on hats.

Like the pic from TT, but don't you know your not supposed to give rides to strangers?!?

 

[Tinker326]

We've got the snow too. Glad you got a few minutes of "happy place" time!

Looks like you're having fun so far! You are very brave to put those hats on. After working with kids my whole life, it's hard for me to not scream LICE! when the girls want to try on hats.

Like the pic from TT, but don't you know your not supposed to give rides to strangers?!?

The snow seriously needs to go away. Now! I'm at my wits end!!!

Yes, our general rule is 'not hat trying on' anywhere. You should have seen me in the stores screaming 'noooooo, stooop! (slow motion) as I saw any of my kids do it. They were always like 'why?' and then all the other people in the store are now staring at me as I say 'because LICE' and I was offiically dubbed 'loony mom'. Oh well, I'm used to it!

 

[cruisingteacher]

My mum is just as sick of the winter storms back home!!

I also love sharks, and study them in my spare (hahaha what a funny word) time.

Great update!

 

[Tinker326]

Wow- record here. Three posts in like three days. What's happening?

I am finishing up our first full day in the parks & am also clearly avoiding the pile of work on my desk. This is more fun..and I'm good at procrastinating stuff I don't want to do.

So we left off coming off Test Track which everyone loved. We had our very last FP over in Norway (Norvay if pronoucing with a Norweigian accent) for Maelstrom. (the good old days of no teiring at EPCOT).

Of course, on our way over- we pass... Mexico!! Have to go in!!!



We shopped, rode the ride, watched glass blowing & stopped at the Kid-cot station on the way out.

Sarah and Charlie loved this.. Becca declared herself 'too cool' for such things as coloring Perry. She instead took this time to whine about how hungry she was.



I forced the girls out of the coloring station because it was our FP time & also other people were joining Becca's whine of hunger....

On to Norvay. And Maelstrom.



Clearly we really didn't need the FP plus - but whatever.

There was an actual photopass photographer out in front (rare indeed nowadays it seems) and so I said 'everyone let's get a picture'. And everyone glared at me and said 'in front of this?...no'. FINE! So Becca, my only willing subject, joined me instead.



We enjoy this ride- even though it's short. And we also enjoy the gift shops at the end (except the darn perfume of Norvay which is overwhelming and gives me an instant headache!)



Love this shirt....



Norvay Nancy



My girls actually spend large amounts of their time on a daily basis trying to attack each other when cooped up in a house (say, like.. in the middle of winters when we have -20 degree weather & 10 feet of snow). This just provided a more safe venue for the sport of 'sister fighting'....with foam instead of maybe other things being lobbed at each other.... so I let them have at it. My bets were on Sarah but Becca ended up with some fine moves and won the matches.......





By this time, everyone was claiming to be close to death from hunger.. luckily for me, I was exactly where I wanted to be for my lunch. I had done my dis reserach and knew I wanted to try out the Norvay bakery for my lunch. No one else in my party was thrilled with this decision. So I got in line & they headed to China to find some food there.. and quickly rejoined me saying 'no' on China..

Mom decided to stay with me in Norvay and hubby took the kids to the burger places- Fountainview Terrace - for burgers & chicken. Remember: my family = most unadventureous eaters ever.

That worked for me because that meant I got to enjoy my awesome lunch without potty breaks, food sharing or arguements!!!

I got a ham & apple sammy (so good) and the Viking Mousse (also, so good!).



Thank you country of Norvay- I enjoyed my meals here today very much!

Mom & I ate and left to find the rest of the troop. As we were walking back through Mexico I looked over and saw our stroller sitting there. Oh yhea. Um.. we parked it there, forgot about it & left if there. Like I said- this was the last day of the stroller. It almost lived in Mexico permantly. But instead now resides at the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we left it.

Mommy dearest and I passed another photopass photographer on our way to find the troops and I said "let's get pictures" and she said "why?" and I said.. JUST DO IT. So she did. She was in fear of the pirate selling, you know...

Momma & me....



We found the troops. And the troops (i.e- everyone but me) wanted to do Mission Space. I don't like this ride- so I sat out with Charlie and waited.



The brave space fronteir men (and women..and kids).

Mom decieded we needed to try the Land- which I totally thought I had a picture of loaded but it must have failed to upload. We had never been on this before. It was cute. I like Ellen- she makes me laugh. Charlie fell asleep... and 45 minutes later we emerged.

Girls wanted a stop at MouseEars. Where they used some of their hard earned money for months of savings for some souvies. I think they each got a vinyl & maybe a pin.

It was now about 3:30 and our plan for the night was to go back to the hotel & eat in the room and then head to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic. I literally bought park hoppers for this reason.....

So we hit up one of our most favorite rides in Epcot- Spaceship Earth..



My sweet girls at Epcot



Cold, but happy!

And a forced picture at the enterance.



My mother has a great ability to look everywhere but at the camera.

We happily skipped our way out to the car for our evening plans...



Now comes the part you have all anxiously been awaiting which will be a total let down because it's not really THAT exciting. But it was so, so, SO very annoying that it happened!!

We get to the car and I hear 'Uh, Nic........'



Mother, effer........... really? So I called the rental and they nicely told me "well, you didn't purchase so/so plan if you want us to fix it for you- it will cost you $100". Uh. No.

So mom calls Triple A and they say "we'll be there, in 2 hours"

Uh. No.

So Kurt says, well obviously I'll change it... so I get the manuel out to try to find the darn spare (located somewhere under the front of the car with a lock to release it under some consule in the center of the car.

After jacking it up & standing around the parking lot & crawling around the ground - we get the spare on....



Look at that handy man!

So we call back to the rental place where they nicely tell us "ok, you can't drive on that spare, so you have to come exchange the car" And I say.. "ok, where's my closest location?" And they say "Oh, no.. you have to drive it BACK to the airport?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

So my grand plans of watching Fantasmic (with the park hoppers I bought specifically to watch Fantastmic this night) were dashed. I was tired & SO SICK of the airport runs (This would make my 7th trip on those roads!) It was a 2 hour MIN round trip there & back. Angry, disappointed, sad... don't even describe it. I was not happy.

I should have listened to my gut when that darn light went on and switched it out at one of my previous trips to the airport.

We made it there, switched out the van (I let Hubby pick), switched out the paperwork and headed back to the hotel... mom had fed the kids & put them all in bed. And that ended our first full day in Disney.